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Cable Onda

Cable Onda Network Documentation in Panama

Project Summary

Project
Cable Onda, a telecommunications company serving the provinces of Panama, wanted to document its network to create a centralized, comprehensive, and correlated source of network information. Their prior documentation approach – a patchwork of Excel spreadsheets and drawings in MicroStation – had grown obsolete. Their goal was to have accurate, integrated network data to support faster, optimized network modeling and timely identification and resolution of network damage.

Solution
Cable Onda acquired MicroStation over eight years ago, but they never learned how to appropriately use the application to support comprehensive documentation and other processes. Then, in 2015, the telecommunications company engaged Bentley to run a pilot project in the province of Colon for three months to demonstrate the value of the platform and train employees to use it. If the pilot project was successful, Cable Onda would continue documenting the other 11 provinces.

Outcome
The pilot was efficacious, and employees have now successfully documented several other provinces, with the entire project to be completed in 2018. The result will be a centralized source of network data that Cable Onda can use to quickly and easily find and fix damage within the fiber optic and hybrid fiber-coax networks, as well as design and document network changes. Engineers can perform more accurate calculations, optimize placements of new equipment, avoid duplicating fibers, and know how much the network is being used. Engineers in the monitoring center can also efficiently search for equipment and track damage with greater precision.

Software
The company deployed Bentley’s Communications Network GIS software, 2D/3D Desktop GIS and Mapping software, Coax Network Design and GIS software, Fiber Network Design and GIS software and Bentley Expert Designer Communications to create its new platform. The combined functionality has improved equipment inventory accuracy, boosted the security of information, eased the implementation of new technologies and designs, and helped designers determine where to place new equipment to best satisfy current and future customers.

"Bentley gave us a Ferrari eight years ago and we did not know how to use it. Today, we have been implementing and designing our networks on the platform for a year, and it’s driving innovation for our organization, as it correlates our teams with a geo-reference, geographic system."